Rugby: Argentina celebrates historic triumph against "All Blacks"

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Almost unlimited cheers: Argentina's rugby players celebrate their first ever triumph against New Zealand

Photo: 

DAVID GRAY / AFP

The Argentine national rugby union team made history at the Tri-Nation tournament on Saturday night.

The "Pumas" won 25:15 (16: 3) against New Zealand.

It is the first victory of an Argentine national team against the legendary "All Blacks".

It was the South Americans' first international game since the World Cup in Japan in autumn 2019. Due to the corona crisis, Argentina has not been able to play any more games since then, so they were considered to have no chance before the duel against the "All Blacks".

Because the opponent wasn't just anyone: New Zealand won the World Cup in 2011 and 2015, and in 2019 they finished third.

The New Zealanders had won the opening game at the Tri Nations against Australia (43: 5), but also just lost to Australia (22:24) the following week.

But the New Zealanders lost two games in a row for the first time since 2011.

This was mainly due to the outstanding Argentinian Nicolás Sánchez.

The fly-half scored all of his team's points, ran into the opponent's in-goal once (19th minute) and converted six penalty kicks (5th, 26th, 33rd, 48th, 57th, 77th).

At the 2019 World Cup, Argentina failed in the group stage.

The cheers among the players and some of the around 9,000 fans in the stadium in Sydney, Australia was ecstatic.

There are more pictures of the game in the photo gallery:

hba / sid